New beds (for the aquaponics that is)

The new aquaponics floating raft bed now has floating rafts.

The rafts are made from a mix of broccoli box lids and repurposed builders Styrofoam with holes in them for the net pots.

There’s space for 21 seedlings at the back and 17 bigger plants at the front. They’re arranged that way so that the plants ready for harvest are the most accessible and get the most light.

The numbers are odd because the cooler weather is here and the bigger spacings will allow for more light per plant as well as space to allow air circulation to stop humidity and mold building up on the lower leaves of the Lettuces.

Instead of rock wool or perlite, I’m using some bedding foam that I found on the side of the road and gave a thorough clean, rinsing out any dust or weird chemicals.

The pads will sit in the net pots, in water, so that they can get a thorough soaking in the aquaponics water and that’ll balance out any pH issues with the foam. It’ll also give time for some microbes to make a home in the pores.

It’s going to be all leady greens on this bed, nothing unusual or exotic – Lettuces, Spinach, Kale and the like. Enough to keep us going over Winter with enough to share.

The new bed means that we can but heavier plants such as Broccoli and Cabbages in the media beds. That’ll be once the Tomatoes stop producing, that is. They’re still rocketing along, especially the Cherry Tomatoes.